Heather Gilligan

Real men don’t stand by

The My Strength training program teaches men how to intervene in acts of violence against women. Also called bystander training, My Strength should have been offered regularly at Richmond High, as dismayed advocates pointed out in the aftermath of the Richmond High rape.

Blogging for Jane Doe

Hannah Kenny’s Facebook group, called “Support the Richmond High School gang rape survivor,” drew messages of support from across the world.

Crime overlays poverty

The concentration of poverty tends to concentrate other problems like violent crime. Criminologists have long agreed on this relationship between poverty and crime. The city of Richmond, as the map to the left suggests, is plagued by both social ills.

Community must manage trauma, too

A rape as brutal as the recent attack at Richmond High can affect more people than the victim and her family members.  Hearing the details of the crime, especially when details are repeated over and over again in news stories and on television, can extend the trauma throughout the community. 20091123_crisis/crisis.mp3|Victim Advocates Discuss Secondary Trauma

Living with shots fired

ShotSpotter, a series of sensors that detect when shots are fired, shows that gunfire is a daily occurrence in Richmond’s Iron Triangle. City residents describe the painful effects of hearing shots fired as part of daily life.

Richmond’s 37th Homicide

We read about murder in the paper and watch reports of homicide on television.  These stories are likely the only coverage of the crimes we’ll see.  What happens to the families of murder victims as they resume their lives in the weeks after the crime remains unreported, their pain undocumented. Family and friends of murder victim Kaneesha Mallard struggled for answers at a press conference held four days after her death.  Mallard, 19, and her companion, Alfred Thomas, 20, were…

Richmond’s New Skate Park

West Contra County’s only skateboard park opened in Richmond’s Nicholl Park last week. Plenty of skaters, and a few BMX bikers and rollerbladers, turned out to enjoy the new park on Sunday, Oct. 25.